How to Create a Snapchat Geofilter in 15 Minutes…

According to Snapchat, geofilters are a fun way to share where you are, or what you’re up to, by adding an overlay to your Snap. If you have location services and filters enabled, geofilters appear at thousands of places around the world. After you take a Snap, swipe to see what’s around!

My goal in this article is to teach everyone who is passionate about social media how to create a Snapchat geofilter in 15 minutes. The best part is that I’m going to explain how you can create a Snapchat geofilter for dirt cheap to grow exposure for your business or personal event with this funky overlay.

A real-life example

Below is an example of a geofilter we created for Ohio’s Columbus Yellow Cab, one of our clients. Our goal behind this campaign was simple. We wanted to create a graphic that people on Snapchat would want to overlay on their pictures. We also wanted to geofence the Short North Arts District in Columbus, the most popular area of bars and nightlife in central Ohio during Pride weekend.

Thanks to Alex and Lauren at our agency for modeling for this photo:

What’s amazing about Snapchat geofilters is that the cost is relatively inexpensive and you don’t have to be a large brand or business to utilize this feature. Let’s say you have a wedding coming up — you can geofence the area around where your reception is taking place and create a custom filter.

Personal vs. business

The first thing to note is that two types of on-demand filters are offered: Personal and Business. In its guidelines, Snapchat explains:

“A Personal Geofilter is one that doesn’t include any branding, business marks/names or logos, and doesn’t promote a business or a brand.” The personal geofilter would be what I referenced for the wedding.

“A Business Geofilter is one that promotes a business or a brand.” This is like the example I provided with Columbus Yellow Cab.

Rules to follow

If you’re creating a Business filter, you must have the necessary rights and permissions to include any business names, marks, logos or trademarks and you must also supply a business name while purchasing the filter.

There are other guidelines that need to be followed as well, which can be viewed in Snapchat’s submission guidelines mentioned above. To make a long story short, you can’t include emails, phone numbers, hashtags or photographs of people. Before you submit your geofilter, make sure you read the entire list through so your geofilter gets approved and you aren’t violating any of Snapchats rules and regulations.

Pricing

The price of an on-demand geofilter depends on a few factors such as the size of the geofence and how long you want it to run. You can view Snapchat’s pricing information here. After logging in to Snapchat, the current cost of the geofilter will appear in the top left corner. Make sure your geofence is between 20,000 and 5,000,000 square feet, otherwise it won’t display the price.

Below is the campaign data for Yellow Cab. In total, it cost $312.62 for this specific campaign. You might think this is pricey but you can see that this campaign covered over 3 million square feet. If you choose to geofence a reception hall for a wedding, you can do it for as little as $10.

We ran the above piece of creative for Yellow Cab from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. on June 3, a Saturday evening when we knew a lot of people would be out and about in Columbus.

Graphic requirements

Once a graphic has been created, getting it uploaded to Snapchat is simple. The toughest part is actually creating the graphic and deploying a piece of creative that will get overplayed onto people’s photos.

You’ll need some Photoshop skills in order to get this up and running. If you need help, feel free to contact our design team and we’ll be able to get this completed for your wedding, personal occasion or business purpose in less than an hour. If you know a graphic designer, share this article with them and they’ll be able to easily complete the steps below. If you know Photoshop, go create a Snapchat geofilter! Here are the requirements from Snapchat:

Files should be 1080px wide by 1920px high. Use the purchase tool preview page to see how it will look on different devices.

Files should be under 300KB in size and saved as a .PNG file with a transparent background.

If your geofilter is rejected by Snapchat, it will do its best to provide you a reason as to why it was rejected. You can make adjustments and resubmit your filter as a new order.

Name your geofilter something you will remember — that way it will be easier to understand your results.

There are so many occasions where a Snapchat geofilter will give your business exposure or create a buzz around your personal event.

Now it’s time to get out there and get your Snapchat geofilter on!

Jason Parks

Jason Parks is a proud Columbus native and the founder and CEO of The Media Captain, a digital marketing agency. He has been featured in the New York Times, Yahoo News, Search Engine Watch and AOL on digital-marketing topics and success sto…